{"id":52014,"date":"2026-03-21T06:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T02:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/?p=52014"},"modified":"2026-03-21T01:55:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:55:59","slug":"us-blocks-russian-tankers-cuba-fuel-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/us-blocks-russian-tankers-cuba-fuel-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"US Blocks Russian Tankers Bound for Cuba Amid Energy Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style='background:#f7fafc;padding:15px;'>\n<p><strong>Quick Read<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The U.S. Treasury has officially banned Cuba from receiving Russian oil, closing a brief window of authorized trade.<\/li>\n<li>Two tankers, the Sea Horse and Anatoly Kolodkin, are currently tracked en route to Cuba carrying nearly 1 million barrels of fuel.<\/li>\n<li>Cuba faces its deepest energy crisis in decades following the loss of Venezuelan supply lines and intensified U.S. pressure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>WASHINGTON (Azat TV) \u2013 The United States Treasury Department has issued a formal directive prohibiting Cuba from accepting deliveries of Russian crude oil and petroleum products, a move that directly challenges two tankers currently navigating toward the Caribbean nation. The Office of Foreign Assets Control confirmed on Thursday that it has added Cuba to the list of jurisdictions barred from facilitating transactions involving Russian-origin energy products, effectively tightening the U.S. maritime blockade on the island.<\/p>\n<h2>Tracking Russian Tankers and Sanctions Circumvention<\/h2>\n<p>Maritime intelligence firms have identified two vessels currently en route to Cuba, raising immediate questions about potential enforcement actions. The Hong Kong-flagged <em>Sea Horse<\/em> is estimated to be carrying 190,000 barrels of gasoil, while the Russian-flagged <em>Anatoly Kolodkin<\/em> is reportedly transporting 730,000 barrels of crude. Data from Windward indicates that the <em>Sea Horse<\/em> has utilized deceptive shipping practices, including the disabling of location transponders, to mask its transit. These vessels lack Western insurance coverage, a detail that analysts suggest points to a deliberate effort to circumvent existing international sanctions.<\/p>\n<h2>The Stakes of the Energy Blockade<\/h2>\n<p>This policy shift follows a brief, temporary authorization that allowed for the purchase of Russian fuel stranded at sea to stabilize global energy markets during the ongoing conflict involving Iran. With that window now closed, the Trump administration has signaled a pivot toward isolating Havana. Cuba, which has faced severe energy shortages since its primary supplier, Venezuela, was cut off following the U.S. military operation against President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in January, now faces its most significant economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n<h2>Defiance from Havana and Moscow<\/h2>\n<p>In response to the U.S. directive, Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio affirmed that the nation&#8217;s political trajectory is non-negotiable. President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel has publicly characterized the U.S. actions as an attempt to choke off the island\u2019s essential supplies, pledging what he termed unyielding resistance. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has dismissed the threat of U.S. tariffs, noting that direct trade between the two nations is already minimal, and has reaffirmed its commitment to providing financial and logistical support to its long-term Caribbean ally.<\/p>\n<p><em>The escalation of this fuel blockade represents a significant shift in U.S. hemispheric policy, transforming Cuba\u2019s energy dependency into a central front of the broader geopolitical confrontation between Washington and Moscow.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Treasury has officially prohibited Cuba from receiving Russian oil shipments, escalating a standoff as two tankers approach the fuel-starved island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow5Nm1DA:productID":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8803,854],"class_list":["post-52014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-cuba","tag-donald-trump"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Russian-Tanker.jpg","_embedded":{"wp:featuredmedia":[{"id":-1,"source_url":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Russian-Tanker.jpg","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azat.tv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}